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Thursday, December 29, 2016

Review: Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

I had no choice but to read Becky Albertalli’s debut novel, SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA [Amazon | Kobo | Scribd], in two sittings. (It would’ve been one, but I was too sleepy to keep going.) It won my love right from the first line, and kept on earning it as it took me deep into every facet of Simon’s wonderful, difficult, hopeful, beautiful life.

It will be on my Best of 2016 list. I’ll tell you that for free, spoilers for future posts be damned.

I loved it so much, and on such a visceral level, that I want to rant about it to the rooftops without the limitations of coherence, so we’re gonna take the short, gushy, ungrammatical route:

OMG this book is the best I loved it right from the first line which has only happened to me nine times ever Simon has such an awesome voice he’s witty and distinctly teenaged without being a cliche and he says fuck a satisfying number of times which is weirdly important to me and also he has these amazing relationships with people like the book starts out with him being blackmailed but then him and the kid sort of become friends which is WEIRD and AWESOME and also he’s got these two established BFFs who he’s totally devoted to and they click so well and he’s also getting to be BFFs with a new girl and they’re in the school play together and it’s OLIVER! I frickin’ love OLIVER! so there’s a theatrical angle and friendship and ALSO HE HAS SISTERS DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE IT WHEN THERE’S SIBLINGS and then because friends and the theatre and sisters apparently aren’t enough there’s an EPISTOLARY COMPONENT where he’s chatting over email with this other closeted gay guy from his school and their exchanges SPARKLE and they connect in so many BEAUTIFUL WAYS and not everyone is white and Christian and not everyone is instantly wonderful at social stuff they’ve all gotta figure out how to interact with each other and navigate life and be the kind of people they want to be it’s so beautiful omg I can’t get over it and the last line is PERFECT the WHOLE THING IS PERFECT it’s what 19-year-old me wanted THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER to be and what THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER most decidedly was not please read it you’ll love it it’s wonderful.

Hahahaha, honestly, the last few lines are what really -- well, no, all of this won me over. But the last few lines in particular of this review won me over. The Perks of Being a Wallflower was never what I wanted it to be, and I would love a book that was what I wanted that book to be. Adding to the list!

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